Philadelphia Eagles: Jeffery Lurie still not pulling the plug on his head coach

PHILADELPHIA — Rightly or wrongly, fair or not, from kickoff in Week 1 until their 30-22 loss Monday night to the Carolina Panthers, the Eagles were under one 2012 mandate: Lose fewer than eight regular-season games or be coached by someone else in 2013.

They’ve lost eight times.Now what?

“Listen, we are going to keep battling,” Andy Reid said after the Birds fell to 3-8. “I’m going to control what I can control, and that is getting better as a team. I’ve got to do a better job with that, obviously, with the way we’ve played here. So I am not worried about all the other things. I am worried about winning football games and making sure I get my players pushing up to that.”

“I have to do a better job with that.”

The Eagles were 4-8 in 2011, and Reid did a better job later. But though they finished 8-8, owner Jeffrey Lurie grumbled that it was “fool’s gold,” and said that he would have made a coaching change had he not fully expected significant 2012 improvement.

The best the Eagles can finish in the regular season is 8-8, a record that Lurie specifically said in the preseason would be insufficient for Reid to remain employed. However, the owner did allow for the possibility of major injuries, which the Eagles have suffered. And it’s still technically mathematically possible that the Eagles could win the NFC East and more.

For that, Reid is still employed...for now.

“We haven’t really talked about that,” Reid said. “He (Lurie) has been supportive. Obviously, he is as competitive as anybody. He wants to win games. That’s what he is in this business for. So we really haven’t gone there. I’m trying to get this football team to win games. That’s where my energy is.”

The Eagles have five regular-season games remaining, beginning this weekend in Dallas. There has been no indication that Lurie will make a change in-season. The owner had a chance Monday to address that and other topics when he appeared at the Linc to welcome Troy Vincent and Leo Carlin to the franchise Hall of Fame. But he entered through a side door and quickly exited the same way. A team spokesman said he would not be available for questioning.

That left the numbers and the speculation.

“That’s something that I am going to stay away from,” Cullen Jenkins said. “I am going to keep playing hard. I am going to keep playing hard for myself and my teammates, for Coach Reid and all of the coaches. I am just going to keep looking at what I can do better. I need to start making more plays and try to do something to change the game. That’s all I am worried about.”

The Eagles have lost their last seven, something Lurie must not have expected, something Reid said he’d never experienced.

“I’m not sure I have, not this many losses,” Reid said. “I’m not sure I have. But when you are in it, you’ve got to fix it. So I don’t really care what happened in the past. I’m going to try to get it right now. That’s the important thing.”